War of words brews over counterfeit technology products

A war of words is brewing between the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Computer and Allied Products Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) over the prevalence of counterfeit at the popular Ikeja Computer Village in Lagos. Only recently, Joseph Odumodu, director general of SON, declared that 80 percent of Information Technology (IT) products at the Computer Village are counterfeit.

Speaking at an anti-counterfeit Africa conference organised by Hewlett Packard (HP) in Abuja, Odumodu berated activities of counterfeiters in the country lamenting that it has helped increase Nigeria’s already bloated labour market.

“Over one million Nigerians working in the textile industries lost their jobs since 2000 due to counterfeiting, leading to accelerated closure of many manufacturing firms, while the surviving ones are in the state of comatose” Besides the loss of jobs, Odumodu however noted that health and environmental effects of these counterfeit activities are also heavy on the economy. Odumodu pointed out that the scourge has also seen to the closure of many legitimate companies with their workforce thrown into the labour market, which has put undue pressure on the Nigerian economy. Odumodu also said that the mere realisation of the effects of consuming counterfeit products was the rationale behind the government agency’s renewed push and vigour to sanitise the Ikeja Computer village market.

 The DG’s assertion has drawn the indignation of the leadership of the Ikeja Computer Village. Godwin Enemoh, public relations officer, CAPDAN, says Odumodu claims was unguarded, and could send negative signals to the local and international business community that the market was an unfavorable place to do business.

According to him, “I was shocked to read the outrageous claim of the SON DG. How can a top government official make such statement which he cannot substantiate? In the first place he has not come into the market since he became the DG and has not met with the leadership of the market. As a matter of fact his only presence in the market was a couple of weeks ago, in a Gestapo manner, to disrupt activities in the market. So, claiming that 80 percent of products in the market are counterfeit, was unbecoming of a government official” he added. Enemoh said the SON DG should be more concerned about regulating the market rather than destroying it. “You have not come to the market to take a study, so you can’t know what goes on. You have not even met the leaders. That is what a proactive leader should do. But you are not doing that. Regulating the market from pages of newspapers is not the right procedure”. Enemoh however agreed that there were counterfeit products in the market but not to the level Odumodu claimed. In his view, counterfeit in the computer market was not beyond 30 percent. “The market cannot have more than 30 percent of fake products.

 “Even at that, most of the people dealing on fake products, we have made to register their products and have trademarks.

So we have even made it is easy to quickly identify who is fake.

He said that the best way to solve the counterfeit problem in the market was for “SON to understand the market, call us and have a meeting so that we dialogue and find a common solution”, he further added.

 

Ben Uzor